McGill comes to town

Learning about change in social work, leadership in education, and the historical identity of Kahnawake were all on the docket for nearly 40 McGill students, who last week visited town as part of an initiative from McGill’s Office of Indigenous Initiatives.

“It was really nice to just be in Kahnawake and share experiences,” said Pasha Partridge, McGill’s Indigenous representation and events officer, who is Inuk from Kuujjuaq and Mohawk from Kahnawake.

She organized the event, which brought McGill graduate students to Kahnawake’s Golden Age Club to learn from community members Michael Loft, Kim Martin, and Gerald Taiaiake Alfred.

Martin, the current dean of Indigenous education at John Abbott College, talked to students about her journey in educational leadership, and the realities faced by Indigenous students at CEGEP.

“It was such a positive event, it was so engaging, and even though some of these conversations and topics aren’t always easy to talk about, students were very open and willing to take it in with no judgment,” said Martin.

“They really had their own personal commitment to engage and learn about Indigenous people, and it was a real highlight that there was a respectful, engaging vibe that all of them brought to the day.”

Alfred talked about his work as a historian, and the books he’s written on Indigenous resurgence.

He said he was encouraged by the questions the students had for him after his talk, and the willingness they had to learn.

“To me, one of the things that’s always lacking in big universities is connection beyond rhetorical statements about accountability to communities and so forth, so for people to have the opportunity to come here and meet people and make a connection that grounds them somewhat is good,” he said.

“They now have, I think, more confidence acting on that sense of social justice and accountability, knowing that they have a relationship with Kahnawake, they’ve been here and at least had some contact with it.”

He said that there were a good number of international students and other non-Indigenous students present, many of whom had little knowledge of Indigenous history - he shared about what happened in the 1990 Siege of Kanehsatake and the legacy of colonialism today.

“I drove it home and said, ‘You’re right here, this is where all that stuff happened, and this is where a lot of activism about decolonization takes place,’” he said. “It was an opportunity for them to get outside of the bubble that a place like McGill is, and actually understand who they are in relation to the land here and the original people.”

Michael Loft was the final speaker to share with students, touching on his career as a social worker and his own experiences as an Indigenous person growing up.

“I brought it back to my own childhood when I was young, because I didn’t have anybody to encourage me and talk to me about change, and to tell me that there’s a better life out there,” he said. “I’m hoping some of that might have reached or connected with the Native students, who may have shared the same background as me.”

He said that he hopes what he shared could be of use to students graduating from fields where they will help individuals that share his experiences.

“I wanted to leave students with actual tools that they could apply in their own life or in their own practice. Whether they’re Native or non-Native, they’re human, and we’re talking about humanity. They need tools,” he said.

“I didn’t want to just leave it as an academic teaching, I wanted to, as a social worker, show how we can achieve change on an individual level, person by person, inch by inch.”

Partridge said that she hopes to organize more events like this in the future, and that she’s hoping to bring students to Kahnawake’s soon to be ready Cultural Arts Centre, Kanatahkwèn:ke.

“I want these experiences to be authentic, I want them to be coming from the community,” she said.

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